A month into legal marijuana sales, no campaign to educate Colorado's kids

Legal sales of recreational marijuana started in January in Colorado but the state hasn't yet rolled out a public education campaign the governor says is needed to help keep children away from pot.

Gov. John Hickenlooper told Colorado Matters in February 2013 that since the voters of Colorado legalized recreational marijuana, teenagers he's talked to think the drug is less dangerous. He said the state should help make kids aware that marijuana can have long-term effects on the brain and other consequences to their health.

"We should have the resources to make sure people are aware of this, especially kids," Gov. Hickenlooper said.

On Tuesday, the governor said a public awareness campaign targeting young people is in the works, but he thinks it will be "a couple months" until it's rolled out.

"You don't want to just throw money at something like this," the governor said. "You want to think through, how are the best ways to create messages kids will hear."

Also on Tuesday, Governor Hickenlooper addressed concerns that some Colorado teachers have about what they say is a shortage of substance abuse counselors in schools.

"My guess is that we will certainly spend money on interdiction, on trying to get to kids rapidly," Hickenlooper said. "Whether that's best done through counselors in the school, or whether we try and do it through the health care system, or whether we -- you know, how we approach that, again it hasn't gotten to that level to me yet, but I'm sure they're pretty close to having that worked out."

More on the governor's conversation on Tuesday with Ryan Warner is available here.